Why are some church websites using .cc?

January 30, 2008 9:49 AM

Why are some churches in the U.S. using the ".cc" Top Level Domain (instead of .com or .org) on their churches' web sites? Isn't .cc the country code for the Cocos Islands off of Australia? Examples from my quick Google search: Example A Example B
posted by unceman to technology (7 comments total)

Probably because it could stand for "Christian Church". Just like how video and TV sites will use .tv (for tuvalu) and last.fm uses .fm for the Federated States of Micronesia
posted by delmoi at 9:53 AM on January 30

I'd have to agree with Delmoi: I also think it's short for Christian Church.
posted by chunking express at 10:35 AM on January 30

Quite a few itty bitty principalities have licensed their nation codes to independent registrars. My own URL is ".nu", which is nominally the island of Niue, which has a total population of about 1500. The ".tv" domain (which has become a pretty standard one for television show home pages) is nominally for Tuvalu, home to about 12,000 people.

At least in the case of the .nu domain, the registrar is NuNames, and it's a non-profit. Any proceeds beyond operating costs are used to bring internet access to the people of Niue. (How much of that might have happened, I have no idea, but that's the theory.)

The decision to go with one of the alternate domains instead of the standard ones is different for different people. My reason for going with .nu was twofold: "denbeste.nu" was already taken (by a company that hauls toxic waste!), and in any case I was leery of the entire .com domain and all the crazy shit that was happening in it.

Also, these days, the .com domain name space is very thoroughly mined out. Going with one of the more obscure domains may permit you to get a primary name you couldn't get in .com. (Which in fact was the case for me.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:40 AM on January 30

Rats. "denbeste.com" was already taken by a hauler of toxic wastes. "denbeste.nu" was available and I got it.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:41 AM on January 30

Choose Christ? Si si, señor.
posted by tra at 10:53 AM on January 30

Yes, I remember seeing pitches for cc as a church-specific domain a few years back. (In fact, there's still a page on Verisign.com that suggests cc stands for "church community.")
posted by faster than a speeding bulette at 10:53 AM on January 30

A few years ago .cc was pushed as the next .com, and I know of a fair number of organizations that picked up their domain as a .cc just to have the next cool thing.
posted by niles at 2:03 PM on January 30